how much of the occult symbolism of masonic rituals did joseph put into the endowment cermony?

J

John

New member
. according to mormon history of j/s life, he was into occult practices at an early age. his family searched for buried treasure with peep and seer stones, devining rods and other forms of witchcraft. when they located a treasure spot they drove stakes arround it to ward off evil spirits he was a student of gnostics and free masonry. he eventually gave up his association with the masons when he started the lds church, but he carried over the occult trappings and wove them into the endowment cermony. such as the underwear with occult symbols sowed into them, the secret hand shakes, secret vows,new names,punishments,holy aprons, etc. etc. the mormon church is loathe to admit this so it whitewashes the info and tries to clean up smiths image. the church is afraid to come clean on this for fear of losing members, so it lives a lie. j/s neighbors considered him a liar , a con man and a fruad...
 
sounds like somebody has seen "the truth" video (which is a lot of things, but 'truth' is not one of them)
many of JS's neighbors, friends, acquaintancesconsidered him to be an upstanding and fine man...kind and generous and helpful. guess you can find people who have all kinds of different opinions in this world, eh? it's pretty easy to iimpugnthe character of a man dead over a hundred years.....

a common error: using modern standards to pass judgment on historical figures......the meaning of a symbol can only be defined by the person or group using it.
if others find different meanings in that particular symbol it does not negate the meaning to the first group.
example: for thousands of years the swastika was used as a symbol of good fortune and well being by many societies.....so did the nazis (by their use of the swastika) want only good fortune and well being for the countries they overran during WWII, or the millions of people they murdered in the holocaust? that is nonsense.
and in the same way the cross (before it was used by christians all over the world) was known as the "staff of apollo" and was used in the worship of that deity......and in pre-columbian america (and other parts of the world) to signify the sun. does that imply that all christians are sun worshipers? of course not, that would be ridiculous.

and it is just as nonsensical to apply a later interpretation to symbols used by the LDS, and then attack them for something which they do not believe.
 
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